Bodhisattva’s journey: reviewing “A Wrinkle in Time”

Today I took myself to see “A Wrinkle in Time,” not without some hesitation. I’ve loved that book by Madeleine L’Engle for 30 years, so it was scary to enter the movie theater—what if Disney botched it (again, like their 2003 movie rendition)? But my fears were soon put to rest; the director, Ava DuVernay, and her capable cast and crew did the book justice.

I thought I would be the only person in the theater for the early matinee, but unfortunately a lady rushed in during the last preview and sat right across the narrow aisle from me, then proceeded to crunch popcorn and rustle the bag (which was inside another bag) for a full half hour, until I could take no more and actually got up and asked her to please stop crinkling the bag, it was ruining the movie for me. She continued to eat her popcorn, but with a little more care, for the remaining hour and a half. Okay, all that said, on with the review (quick reader survey: which is more annoying—someone who eats noisily throughout the whole movie or someone who leaves their phone on and it rings a few times, they’re like, should I turn that off? Or just let it ring?)

The main character is Meg Murry (Storm Reid), and she’s pretty complex. In the book, her character changes completely. The story, in brief: Meg’s parents are both scientists. She has a brilliant little brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), and one friend/potential bf, Calvin (Levi Miller). Otherwise, she’s an outcast at school, very closed off, intelligent, and lonely. Meg’s dad (Chris Pine) taps into the space-time continuum using just his mind—here it’s called tesseracting—and vanishes from earth, traveling across the universe. On the fourth anniversary of his disappearance, Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) shows up at the Murry house, soon followed by Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah). These ladies are good samaritans from other dimensions—they responded to Dr. Murry’s call for help.

The three Mrs. (who bear more than a passing literary resemblance to the witches of Macbeth—Mrs. Which actually quotes one of their lines towards the end) help the children tesseract across the vastness of space to rescue Dr. Murry. The makeup and costume artists were brilliant with the three Mrs., I will hire them for my next Halloween gala (well, my first Halloween gala). Mrs. Whatsit’s long white flower-like gown fluttered in the wind; Mrs. Who’s lips were orchid purple; Mrs. Which’s eyebrows were like actual amber jewels. Their respective wigs knocked me out, I wanted to put each one on my head immediately.

The sets and the CGI were also spectacular. This might be why I found the previous movie take lackluster—it came out in 2003, and though it was also splashily produced by Disney, it just didn’t have much impact, visually or otherwise. This one does, I’m glad I saw it in the theater.

The book “A Wrinkle in Time” brings in some themes from early Christianity; this cinematic version offers a Buddhist slant (which is not so far from Christ’s original teachings). Meg’s journey is the bodhisattva’s journey. She must confront both hope and fear, the places the mind goes when it’s churning. She has help on her journey—from her brother, her friend, the three Mrs., Zach Galifrankas in a man bun (he’s a seer in a cave, called Happy Medium)—but ultimately she must cross the universe, and confront her own darkness, alone.

Ava DuVernay does a skillful job of taking us along and introducing basic Buddhist concepts without overdoing it. Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg the gift of her faults—in other words, the things that make her human, vulnerable. When Meg lands in a hell realm, the planet Camisotz, she is offered a "better version" of herself (smarter, more popular, cooler), but says no, I need my faults—they are the way to compassion for others.

Meg confronts the darkest mind in the universe, It, in order to save her father and her brother—who gets sucked in by a creepy marionette man, Red (Michael Pena)—and this too is the journey of a bodhisattva. You must not turn away from evil if you want to be a force for good. Meg tells her brother, now completely possessed by It (which you could read as Mara, the lord of materialism), that she loves him, and this breaks through his trance. He is freed and she receives her light body (enlightenment, rainbow light), traveling through space and time with joy instead of pain (as earlier in the story, when she had resisted her journey). Her heart actually leads her body back to earth.

I am leaving out a few characters—Meg’s mother (also a scientist, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the various teachers and kids Meg interacts with at her lousy school—but there were no weak links, the whole cast was solid, especially the three lead actors, all under age 14. Storm Reid was fabulous as Meg, I loved her spunk, and Levi Miller is probably going to be a star if he’s not officially one already. He’s a smokin’ young man with piercing blue eyes (more information than you needed? I take a lot of notes at movies). Reese Witherspoon was delightful as Mrs. Whatsit, and Oprah wore her various hairdos with quiet dignity. I hadn’t seen Mindy Kaling since “The Office” (I don’t watch much network TV), but she was sweet, a good balance to the energy of the other two Mrs.

The last shot of the film is the sun rising in a cloudy sky, red and pink like a full heart. The soundtrack throughout was wonderful—the theme song was by Sade, I stayed for all the credits just to hear it through. I’m fully aware that this movie has received mixed reviews, and, okay, it is a Disney movie so you’re not going to get buckets of blood or other shock value, but that doesn’t change anything for me. Luscious sets (New Zealand in spring? Yes please), glorious costumes and makeup, stunning CGI, interesting dialogue—what’s not to like?

I think some of the critics’ resistance is to the movie’s message of love being a unifying, actual force in our universe (the seed of all real spirituality, this truth is finally being confirmed by some braver scientists)—perhaps it fell on deaf ears. “Be a warrior” can sound pretty lame if you don’t know what a real warrior is. And also because there is antipathy to empowering girls through movies, let’s be honest. The director slipped in some photos of Maya Angelou and a book by a Native American woman, but they were like subliminal messages, there and gone.

I’ll give “A Wrinkle in Time” 4 ½ stars out of 5. Thank you director, cast, and crew, you wrinkled my time just right.